Adiel and the Fuhrer by Elyse Hoffman - #bookreview #blogtour

 

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Adiel Goldstein has a good life. Despite the anti-Semitism he faces as a German Jew, he has everything he wants. A dream job as an art professor, good friends, a loving father, and a precious nine-year-old daughter, Kaia. But his life is about to be upended. An old comrade from his time fighting in the Great War is gaining power: a man named Hitler. Adiel’s father insists that they need to leave the country before Hitler becomes the leader of Germany.

Adiel and his family plan to move to America, but before they can even pack their bags, he and Kaia make a shocking discovery. Adiel’s father, Natan Goldstein, is from the future. A Holocaust survivor who lost his family to unspeakable tragedy, Natan was given the chance to go back in time and take the life of Adolf Hitler. But when he failed to kill the future Führer, he devoted himself to his new family and awaited the inevitable.

Natan can’t face the Holocaust again, but Adiel’s unique connection to Hitler means he might be able to succeed where his father failed. Adiel now has a choice: escape as planned and let history repeat itself, or sacrifice everything to stop the Holocaust before it can begin.

Award winning author Elyse Hoffman has crafted a thought-provoking and daring work of historical fiction which will tug at your heartstrings.

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Although this is the fourth book in the Project 613 series, they absolutely work as stand alone novels. I have previously read and reviewed The Vengeance of Samuel Val which is the second book in the series. I've also read the third, Black Fox One. You can access both of these reviews by clicking on the respective titles. Having read and enjoyed those two, I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to read this one too. 

In all honesty, this book took me a little longer to get into than the previous books. I am not blaming the book for this. Trying to read whilst keeping the puppy amused is not necessarily an ideal combination. However, once I was able to focus on it, I enjoyed it every bit as much as its predecessors.

The book deals with the question; what would happen if we could go back in time and prevent Hitler engineering the atrocities of the Second World War? The plot delivers lots of surprises along the way most of which I did not anticipate and definitely kept me reading.

Each of the characters has something to contribute to the story. Mostly, the characters are fictional but several people from history have a part to play in this story.

The story follows the life of Adiel, the main character, from infancy to adulthood. He is an extremely compelling character as the reader is able to ponder the complexities of his life alongside him. His daughter, Kaia, equally has a significant role in the book and she is the instrumental in bringing the Jewish and Nazi element together on the page.

Ms. Hoffman competently combines a story of Jewish folklore, time-travel, historical fiction and successfully pulls them all together to produce an excellent novel. I recommend this book and it will be enjoyed by anyone who likes historical fiction or time travel elements in their reading.

About the Author:

Elyse Hoffman is an award-winning author who strives to tell historical tales with new twists. Having studied WWII since the age of thirteen and with interests in fantasy and Jewish folklore, she loves to combine them in her writing. Elyse started writing novels at fourteen and finished her first historical fiction work at fifteen. She has published eight books: five in a series called The Barracks of the Holocaust, and three novels, including The Book of Uriel, Where David Threw Stones, and Fracture. In her spare time, she loves to read, work on pretty keyboards, and hang out with her co-authors - her Goldendoodle Ari and her ex-feral cat, Echo.

(book and media courtesy of The Write Reads)

(all opinions are my own)